Clinton “addresses” Benghazi, flawed talking points

By Matt Purple on 1.23.13 | 9:16AM

Hillary Clinton is on Capitol Hill today, testifying in front of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee. Minutes ago, under questioning from Sen. Jim Risch (R-Idaho), she finally addressed the controversy over the attack on our Benghazi facility.

Clinton said it was clearly a terrorist attack, but at the time, "We didn't know who the attackers were, what their motives were." She said to this day, "The picture remains somewhat complicated."

She said at the time of the attack, "I personally was not focused on talking points. I was focused on keeping our people safe". Regarding the talking points, which would later be infamously used by Susan Rice on Meet the Press, Clinton said, "I really don’t think anybody in the administration was really focused on that so much as trying to figure out what we should be doing. I wasn’t involved in the talking points process. As I understand it, as I’ve been told, it was a typical interagency process". She claimed the staff from different agencies worked together to produce the talking points but, "It wasn't an intelligence product."

In other words, still no admission as to who deleted mentions of "terrorism" and "al Qaeda" from the CIA's talking points used by Rice.

Clinton is testifying before the Foreign Relations Committee this morning, and the House Foreign Affairs Committee later today. FoxNews.com and CNN.com have live feeds if you care to follow along.

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